“Given To Fly” by Pearl Jam

"Given to Fly" was Pearl Jam's calling card for Yield, the first single from their fifth studio album in 1998, and the moment the band sounded like it had stopped bracing for impact. Mike McCready wrote the music and Eddie Vedder the words, and Brendan O'Brien produced it with the band and mixed it, with Nick DiDia recording.

It starts low and patient, McCready's guitar murmuring over Jeff Ament's bass while Jack Irons keeps a rolling, tidal beat, then the whole band surges together as if a wave has picked it up and won't put it down. Stone Gossard, McCready and Vedder all play guitar here, and the layers build to a chorus that's pure uplift, Vedder soaring instead of snarling.

Radio heard it: the song went to the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks, reached number 21 on the Hot 100 and became Yield's most popular single, with top-20 showings across Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. It later earned a spot on the band's 2004 greatest hits set, rearviewmirror.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.